NASA recently released this 360-degree panorama from Perseverance rover. This mosaic captures the rugged landscape of an area of Mars that the rover science team calls ‘Airey Hill.’ Courtesy of NASA, ESA, A. Simon, M. Wong and J. DePasquale
This month is the 20th anniversary of the landing of the Mars Exploration Rovers. Opportunity and its fellow rover Spirit landed in January 2004 and operated for 14 years. NASA lost contact with Spirit in 2010. The rover had gotten stuck in sand and went into hibernation during the Martian winter, but it didn’t wake up in the spring. Opportunity was able to continue its mission until it was caught in a massive Martian dust storm in 2018. Unable to charge its batteries, the rover shut down after completing a 28-mile-long journey across the surface of Mars.
Opportunity and Spirit were followed by the Curiosity (2012) and Perseverance (2021) rovers. Last month, NASA released a gorgeous 360-degree panorama from Perseverance. Composed of 993 images and 2.38 billion pixels, this mosaic captures the rugged landscape of an area that the rover science team calls “Airey Hill.”
Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander will not make it to the moon due to a ruptured fuel tank. The spacecraft is operational but is on a trajectory that caused it to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere. This view from an onboard camera shows the crumpled surface of the spacecraft due to the tank rupture.
Courtesy of Astobotic
Moon Landing
Astrobotic’s moon mission has failed. The new Vulcan rocket performed perfectly and put the spacecraft into orbit. But the Peregrin lunar lander suffered a valve failure that apparently ruptured a fuel tank. The spacecraft burned up in Earth’s atmosphere on Jan. 18 over the South Pacific.
Meanwhile the Japanese Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (or SLIM) went in for its own lunar landing. The lander is nicknamed the “Moon Sniper” because it is demonstrating a new high precision landing system. As of this writing, its descent maneuver was successful, and it landed successfully on Jan. 19. It was communicating with mission scientists and successfully deployed its two small rovers. Unfortunately, its solar panels are not charging the batteries. Unless the problem can be fixed, the mission may already be over.
Kevin D. Conod is the Planetarium Astronomer at the County College of Morris and president of the North Jersey Astronomical Group
Update on the Japanese “Moon Sniper” spacecraft: the probe’s solar panels are pointing west so as the Sun moves through the lunar sky, it is possible that the batteries could be recharged. The spacecraft could be revived, but it has only a brief window to operate as the Sun will set at the landing site on January 31.